A Lapsed Progressive: Walter Lippmann and US Foreign Policy, 1914–1945

Abstract

In “A Lapsed Progressive”, Milne points out that Walter Lippmann’s first foray into foreign affairs, advising President Wilson as part of the “Inquiry”, ended badly, as he fell out with Wilsonian universalism. Instead, Lippmann returned to the pragmatism that William James had taught him at Harvard. While the historian and political scientist Charles Beard moved toward autarky, or “continental Americanism”, the rise of fascism in Europe affected Lippmann differently. Lippmann turned to a variant on realism that was best captured in two books, US Foreign Policy: Shield of the Republic and US War Aims, which argued that US foreign policy must place American interests ahead of unrealizable abstractions. In the post-war era, this meant maintaining a working relationship with Stalin’s Soviet Union. Lippmann assumed permanent trends in the structure of world affairs. He overlearned the lessons of Wilson’s failure at the Paris Peace Conference. For Stalin was not simply motivated by narrow self-interest—ideology mattered too.

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Authors and Affiliations

David Milne

1

1.School of HistoryUniversity of East AngliaNorwichUK

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Milne D. (2017) A Lapsed Progressive: Walter Lippmann and US Foreign Policy, 1914–1945. In: Cochran M., Navari C. (eds) Progressivism and US Foreign Policy between the World Wars. The Palgrave Macmillan History of International Thought. Palgrave Macmillan, New York